Mary Kay Thatcher says the agreement between farm bodies and agribusinesses about data privacy and security is like a code of conduct, and all parties to the agreement don't want to see regulation in the future. Read more.

Across Australia's grain growing regions, harvest is in full swing, and in addition to the millions of tonnes of grain that will be reaped this year, gigabytes of data are also being gathered by machinery, on-board software, smartphones, tablets and computers.

A cost-benefit analysis of the National Broadband Network (NBN) shows the Federal Government's plan would provide an $18 billion boost to the economy.

An independent panel commissioned by the Government found the Coalition's multi-technology plan to roll out high-speed internet had greater net benefits than Labor's model of fibre to the premises.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the review modelled four scenarios and found the Government's model would deliver about $18 billion in net benefits compared to almost $2 billion under Labor.

But the Opposition said the report was not the independent analysis that was promised and was not worth the paper it was written on.

Tech analyst Josh Taylor from ZD Net explains the reasoning behind the latest report on the NBN, which states that getting slightly faster internet now is more beneficial than super-fast broadband in the future.

The ease with which Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from radar systems illustrates an uncomfortable paradox in modern aviation: state-of-the-art airplanes rely on ageing ground infrastructure to tell them where to go.